Description
Label review.
1997 album remastered.
Our Overview.
The Verve broke through in 1992 with a trio of singles on Hut Recordings (Virgin Records indie imprint). The band fell into the UK shoegaze scene with their long jams and the heavily affected guitar of Nick McCabe. In the middle was singer Richard Ashcroft (dubbed ‘Mad Richard’ by the music press at this time) with his strong voice and cheekbones made the band stand out during this early phase of their career. Their first album ‘A Storm In Heaven’ (1993) saw them develop a core fanbase whilst second album ‘A Northern Soul’ (1995) featured some potential anthems (e.g. ‘History) in amongst the longer, more brutal jams.
That album had only been out a couple of months when they suddenly split. This was at the height of the ‘Britpop’ period in the UK music scene and it seemed they had missed out on stepping up to the next level. Ashcroft started work on a solo album but soon enlisted The Verve’s rhythm section Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury plus guitarist Simon Tong and elected to continue under the old band name. Realising something was missing Ashcroft asked McCabe to return and he did, bringing his trademark guitar sound with him.
First single from the new project was ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ which became a massive hit although it ran into trouble with the Rolling Stones music publishers for the main sample in the track which was from a version of ‘Out Of Time’ by the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra. The next single ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ went all the way to No.1 in the UK helped along by the maudlin atmosphere in the country provoked by the death of Princess Diana.
The album ‘Urban Hymns’ was released at the end of September and sold by the truckload becoming the second biggest album of the year (behind Oasis ‘Be Here Now’) helped along by third single ‘Lucky Man’. It carried on selling well into 1998 becoming the sixth best selling album in the UK that year!
In the extras for this 20th anniversary edition of the album is a recording of their show at Haigh Hall which was dubbed a ‘homecoming show’. Shortly after this McCabe quit the band after a show in Germany. Although the band struggled on with their tour, enlisting the talents of pedel steel player B.J. Cole, the band eventually split in 1999 with Ashcroft embarking on a solo career. The group reformed for the 2008 album ‘Forth’ which gave them a second No.1 album in the UK but old personal problems resurfaced again during the tour to promote the record and the band broke up for a third and final time in 2009.